Elcogen and TNO have been working alongside one another for more than a decade across projects such as NewSOC, CleanHyPro, OUTFOX and PressHyous under the Horizon Europe framework and within the framework of the VoltaChem shared innovation program.
TNO’s ongoing partnership with Elcogen further highlights the joint commitment to rapidly advancing clean energy solutions. Within this new collaboration, key performance indicators have been formulated in relation to the future of solid oxide stack efficiency, durability, scalability, and overall impact.
Solid oxide electrolysis stands out from other technologies due to its ability to operate at significantly high temperatures while enabling around 20–30% higher efficiency compared to low-temperature electrolysers. Solid oxide core components also have the ability to produce hydrogen from renewable electricity as well as generate renewable energy (power and heat in fuel cell mode) from hydrogen and other fuels within an integrated setup.
Enn Õunpuu, CEO of Elcogen, said: “Our collaboration with TNO and with ECN previously has been central to Elcogen’s development. Our long-standing relationship has jointly established several key improvements in solid oxide technology, and I expect that this new collaboration agreement will expand solid oxide stack technology into a new era.”
Richard Braal, Division Director TNO EMT Industry, said: “TNO has a strong dedication to tackle global warming. We need to speed-up, accelerate innovation and the deployment of new technology. In our collaboration with Elcogen, we will deploy our in-depth knowledge, experience and facilities in the field of water electrolysis and specifically solid oxide technology in order to support Elcogen in achieving their ambition. This is the initiation of a close collaboration in order to accelerate the hydrogen economy.”
Martijn de Graaff, Program Director VoltaChem, added: “Together with our business community, we aim for accelerated innovation and implementation of Power-2-X technologies and value chains in order to reduce the CO₂ footprint of hydrogen and chemicals production. Solid Oxide Electrolysis is an important technology building block in this ambition, especially because it can be efficiently integrated in the high-temperature process industry. It’s great to see a company like Elcogen taking the next step in developing its technology towards larger scale together with VoltaChem’s initiating partner TNO.”
